Moving Tips: How to Pack Your Belongings in an Efficient, Timely and Cost Effective Manner
Contents
If you’re following my posts, you already know about my first experience with a huge moving action and how stressed I felt when all my vintage things had to be carefully placed in a truck and transferred to our new home. And I am still holding on to that opinion: moving is stressful for any person who cares about their belongings, especially if the things they bought were picked with much attention, love and care. However, we all know how much damage stress can cause to your system, so why complicate things when you can make your move a very easy, stress-free task with just a little organization?
In my previous post I discussed how you can organize your move so you don’t go all crazy when moving day comes. Now, I’ll concentrate on one special detail you should never neglect when planning a move: packing boxes. You may instantly want to ask: what about them? You’d probably just use whatever you find to pack your stuff in one place, but have in mind that this will probably cost you a lot (things break easily when on a bumpy road). The smarter choice would be to get packing boxes that are specialized for packing certain things: clothing, glass objects, pictures, paperwork and books. That way, you’ll rest assured that your stuff are properly packed without you having to spend time and nerves on thinking about them.
Pay Attention to the Boxes
Make a list of all the things you have to move and don’t want to risk damaging. These would be precious art pieces, delicate glass or crystal objects and decorations, crystal set of glasses or wine bottles and some of your dresses or you hubby’s suits that you simply can’t pack in a suitcase. Talk to the movers about these things and ask for packing services. They will offer you special boxes which are specially designed to support moving these kinds of objects without problems.
Heavier Objects Should Go on the Bottom of the Box
This is the right way to use all the space in the box and it’s much easier to lift and load everything in a truck this way. That is if you’re not using moving services. In that case, also make sure you place the heavier boxes first and the lighter ones on top or in the middle, so they stay in place while being transferred.
Make a List of the Things Being Packed and Then Label the Box
There’s a simple rule about this: just don’t mix items from different rooms in one box. That’s the recipe for disaster. Fill in the boxes with items from one room only, and label the box so that you know where each item should go in your new home. Labelling is very useful for avoiding a potential mess after moving.
Finally, keep your packing boxes even after you’re done with the moving process. You’ll want to use them again eventually, like for example when you’re doing a large cleaning action in your home, or when you want to store certain things. As you can see, besides being useful for moving stuff, these boxes can have other purposes as well.